Monday, October 28, 2013

13 Months: Training - Days 200 - 204

Emma loves people.
We are on the home stretch with Emma.  She's ready to take her skills on the road and learn how to perform them in public and she's working on task training while finishing off her primary foundation skills for duration.  In order to improve her duration skills I need to increase the level of distraction and put into context in a working envirnoment.  What a journey we've been on!

She's doing better about greeting people when excited, but we seriously need to work on her keeping her cool no matter the excitement level around her.  Since she is easily wound up by voice intonation and more so when it's someone she loves, it is important to use a calm and quiet voice with her and calm and relaxed behavior with her.  As she gets older her ability to self regulate will improve, but we need to set her up for success and being calm and relaxed with her is one of the easier ways of doing so.

Though it's cute to see her bound and jump and dance when she sees her people, it will be a poor example of a working dog in public.  In order to give her the skill set with this particular issue I will have to ask family and friends to go out with me and work with her.  This will be an interesting winter of growth!

Monday


Emma at the game.  Look at how relaxed she is!
On Friday Emma's owner called and arranged for an early pickup so that they could attend a soccer game with their daughter.  With the sudden growth in her confidence and ability to handle stress I felt it was a perfect time to have Emma attend an event with the family again.  I dressed her and met Emma's grandmother at the Ruff House.  I worked with her for a moment on how to walk Emma loose leash and instructed her to please take her to the game and to keep her calm and in a Down or Sit as much as possible.  I felt Emma would do fantastic and I was so right, the pictures later posted showed a calm, happy Emma sitting at the event.  How very nice she's past her stress reactions and she's maturing into a wonderful adult dog.

I was noting last week that her destructive ways are subsiding and she's moving into a lovely adult.  I may have spoken too soon - as the week will tell.

On Monday we worked on pushing my arm up onto my leg and pivot.  She had worked a bit on both the week before, both tasks and skills she needs for her job, and I was hoping to see her mentally work through what I was asking and return stronger than before.  Not only was I pleased to see that, but that she weathered the weekend without showing any stress signs or emotional reactions like she had done earlier in her training.  Before I couldn't take her out more than once or twice for a new adventure without having a backlash of stress behaviors for the remainder of the week.  Now she can and does do many new things during the week and she is ready to do more.  Nice to see.

Emma has a natural nose nudge that she's used since she was a baby to get us to pet her.  Though I personally find it annoying, I knew it was something that would work wonderfully for many of her tasks in the future.  The trick was to curb it enough to not drive me insane and keep it intact enough to later train it for a task.  We are now training it for a task, which has once again increased the instance of her using it for attention.  It's the pay off of training a new behavior - until stimulus control is in place you'll see the behavior more the more it is rewarded.

She is already lifting and then moving my arm to my leg from the inside of my leg.  She is starting to get it more consistently from the outside of my leg.  I am not holding my hand over to the side and down very far yet, but she's getting the idea and I am increasing the amount she needs to lift and move my arm to get it in the right position.

I also worked on pivot.  I am seeing more sideways movement and she is clearly getting the idea it's her back feet doing something, but she's not certain yet if it is backwards or sideways.  She is freer in her movement and is showing a beautiful back up, which I also need to train.  Very nice.  She still has her butt out too far and hasn't yet learned to move with my desk chair when I turn it, but we are moving along nicely.

Tuesday


Emma loves to snuggle.
My Mom dropped by to give me a birthday gift.  Emma was amazing and kept her feet to herself 99% of the time.  She still needs to learn not to pester the company, but her greeting has improved drastically.  My family has been amazing and really worked with me on giving her a chance at success and not rewarding her jumping.  Emma really likes my Mom and it's very hard when she drops by for Emma to keep her feet on the ground.

She is still jumping, but now she's jumping up and down without jumping on the company.  It's a huge improvement and everyone says that they can see it.  She is calming faster because of it and I am happy with her progress.  If we can get that same progress and level of control with her family we'll really be making progress.

We again worked on putting my arm on my leg and pivoting.  She's doing retrieves without issues and I am starting to randomly reward her on the easier retrieves with praise and affection.  It has not reduced her enthusiasm when working with me during the day.

Since Jack was gone for the week she enjoyed a lot of play time with Malcolm.  This particular morning I had an appointment and Mom's visit was brief.  I left her loose in the house and dropped Malcolm off with Ronda, Jack's owner, for my appointment.  When I returned she was calm and happy.

Wednesday


Emma is learning to share her space
when she has a high resource like a bone.
She's really progressing on lifting my arm onto my leg.  She is able to lift it when it's at a 45 degree angle to my knee and hanging from mid-forearm.  Her push up and over is more purposeful and she's pacing less and focused more on the job.  Nice progress.

I also worked more on pivot and she's starting to align with the chair, but her butt is still too far out.  She is pivoting from front center to left heel up to half way and resets to start the lesson again.  She is happy and enjoying the lesson and very relaxed as I watch her work out the problem.  I can see her think and work on it and her persistence is improving each time we work.  Previously working with the chair and her sent her into hiding, now she's joining me willingly to train.  I like seeing that.

My son came over Wednesday night to help with building a cabinet for the kitchen.  Emma was wonderful with her feet and butt down when she greeted him and vibrated with excitement.  She was wonderful while we worked on the cabinet and even came in after the disaster of it collapsing and falling with a thud in the kitchen.  I had a migraine and even with my frowning and in a bad mood she was willing to be out and check on me - nice to see such confidence in her.

Thursday


Emma and Malcolm, peas in a pod.
It was my birthday on Thursday and I decided to take the day off.  Emma got lots of play and free time and truly enjoyed it.  My Mom dropped by and we spent the morning putting up plastic on the windows and foam around the door frame of the front door.  At one point I looked over and Emma had a yellow streak of foam on her face.  She let me gently groom it out and went back to playing.

We had the door open because the house was roasting and the dogs were playing in the yard.  Remember I said I could leave her to play without having to closely watch her?  Well, I eat my words.  With Mr. Excavator in the family I came out my front door to find her digging for gold in my iris bed with dirt flying in a wonderful arc behind her.  I think all of the dogs have learned my sudden "Ahhhh!" means I am taken by surprise by the sight and Emma looked up with pure joy, wagged her tail and went back to digging!  Little snot!

My son came over while we were working on the windows and Emma, who was outside, lost her mind and jumped all over him.  He did great and turned away until she got control, but I have some work on transferring the behavior to any location.

We spent the afternoon putting the new cabinet together and then playing video games.  Emma enjoyed the loves she got and loved the playtime during the day.  She ended the day happy and relaxed.

Friday


Emma missed playing with Jack this week.
I had a migraine for most of the week.  It had eased up on Thursday and was gone by Friday.  I felt like the top of the world and was looking forward to the evaluation I had in the afternoon.  I worked with Emma on pushing my arm up from a lower position again and she did great.  We also worked on pivot and she did a nice job of getting even closer to me.  She went from half way to being lined up to 80% being lined up.  Nice progress for the week.

We also did a lot of cuddle and playtime.  By the end of the week I am tired and don't have a lot of energy to give the dogs anymore and Emma is sensitive enough to pick up on this and wants nothing more than to comfort me.  She puts her chin on my arm or my leg and looks up at me with this imploring expression.  For her handler this is beautiful behavior and has been encouraged since she was a baby.

I left her loose in the house with Malcolm in his crate for my evaluation and returned to a happy and calm dog.  Her caretaker picked her up at 5:00 PM.

We spent a lot of time working on getting her to the care taker without her pulling on the leash or going other threshold.  She finally was able to do so, but once with the person she lost her mind and we spent more time just calming her and talking about how to keep her calm when she finally gets to her goal.

It was a great week and I am looking forward to the next week were we start building on her skills and perfecting her task training.




Level 1
Zen Target Come Sit Down
Step Completed Completed Completed Completed Completed

Level 2
Zen Come Sit Down Target
Step Completed Completed Completed Completed Completed
Focus Lazy Leash Go To Mat Crate Distance
Step 3 Completed 2 Completed 2
Jump Relax Handling Tricks Communication
Step 1 3 Completed Completed Completed

Level 3
Zen Come Sit Down Target
Step 3 Completed 2 1 1
Focus Lazy Leash Go To Mat Crate Distance
Step 0 Completed 0 4 0
Jump Relax Handling Retrieve Communication
Step Completed 2 Completed Completed 1

Level 4
Zen Come Retrieve Target Relax
Step Completed 0 Completed 0 0
Focus Lazy Leash Go To Mat Crate Distance
Step 0 Completed 0 5 0
Handling Communication


Step Completed 0


Friday, October 18, 2013

13 Months: Training - Days 196 - 199

Emma at 13 Months
Do you recognize her?  She's 30 pounds and 16 inches tall.  She's a young dog now and learning so much.   What a change from the tiny puppy who arrived in my home last December.

Emma has been spending the nights sleeping in my room outside of her crate.  I started in the beginning of October and except for on accident with socks she's been perfect.  I have the door to my bedroom gated to keep her in the room while I am asleep.

With Malcolm waking me in the middle of the night I am pleased to see she is sleepy and laying next to me without complaint.  If all goes well, by the end of this month she'll have passed this stage in her earning freedom at night and I'll no longer need to gate her in my room.  I am hoping to start next month with giving her "unsupervised" freedom in my home at night next month.

Monday

It's been paperwork day, so training has been on being good when I am not directly supervising her.  It's so nice I don't have to watch her every single second of the day any longer.

In the morning when her Grandma dropped her off she got to go and greet the children at the bus stop.  This has been a goal of mine ever since she started having barking fits with children.  Today she approached with some lowered body language and a bit of cowering until she got to really meet them and then she was all joy and happiness.  We'll go meet them a couple of more times and see if that doesn't reduce her worry about grade school age children.

In the afternoon we continued to work on picking up canned goods.  I have been working on this off and on for a month now, just for her to experience a new object and for her to know she can pick up heavy objects for me too.  She had been worried and fearful of picking up the can for me and I've taken it slow to build her confidence.

I know part of it is the recycle bin.  I KNOW she can pick up empty cans because she's famous for stealing cans from the recycle bin on my porch and taking them in the yard to scour.  She started to worry that I was mad whenever I saw that and thus when I was ASKING her to pick up a full can she made the "I'm in trouble" association of having cans in the yard.  Remember, I think she thought her middle name was "What are you eating now?" from age 5 months to 12 months!

Today she picked up the can by the very lip of the top and handed it to me.  What a feat.  I was so excited for her and we had such a party that the very next time she picked it up with utter confidence, all of the can in her mouth this time, and handed it up.  We had a huge party again and her confidence soared.  We did it a third time and this time we invited the neighborhood for the party (Jack and Max and Malcolm) and really celebrated her very brave and outstanding break through.

Way to go little girl!

In the yard I tested her out on some of her recall behaviors.  She recalled over 40 feet and let me put her lead on.  She did this on one cue and away from a distraction! Nice job.

She's learning to look but not bark at neighbor dogs and is doing a nice job of it.  I have set the Three Bark Rule for everyone and am heavily rewarding recalling when loose dogs are near the fence and they come to me.  This is a house hold level training protocol and it working well with all dogs.

She has grown to love playing with Malcolm and is very gentle with him.  He's learning a lot from her soft mouth and gentle corrections when he's too rough.  She's learning a lot about playing nice with a very young dog and her dog body language is improving nicely.

Tuesday


Take a bow , Ms. Emma!
As you can see below I spent a large part of last night going through the Levels and seeing where Emma really is.  Though it may appear she wasn't progressing, I am certain her family will agree there has been continued and clear progress in her behavior and her ability to live in the home without causing issues.  This past weekend she spent at her Grandmother's house and when she was dropped off her Grandmother commented on how good of a dog she is and how nicely she rides in the car.  This is a testament to her training - she's a dog welcome anywhere.

Today I was looking at what is left in Level 2 to complete it and realized we need to work on Focus, Go To Mat, Distance, Jump, Relax.  Today I tested Step 4 of Relax.  She isn't "cut string" relaxed when I ask her to settle, but she does go into a down and stays focused on me.  In this case, I am looking for a working Relax which I call Settle and will build it into a default head down with experience and practice.  The "cut string" comes with experience.

We did Step 4 today and she did a good job.  She was happy to settle at my feet and be still even with the other dogs nearby.  After a minute (and convincing Jack not to wrestle with her) I wound her up with a good game of catch my hand if you can and then cued Settle.  She needed both the verbal and hand cue, so she's close, but not full on yet.  She was fine until Jack and the puppy tried to play with her, which resulted in two pop ups.  She did fine on the rest of the test and even put her head down by the last one minute Settle cue.

This means we need to play this game every day for a while until she just collaspes at my feet and relaxes when I cue it.  I'll be taking this on the road also and build it into a functional default state when we stop and take a break.  This is a primary skill of public access and will translate into her first movie.  Until I have a good settle with distractions I can't move her much further in her public access skills.

Focus is coming along nice and I have noticed that she makes eye contact whenever I am asking something of her.  Building it up around distractions is happening.  I have built in distractions in the house for the foundation training and then will take it on the road when it's time.

I am about to start sending her to her mat from a distance and building up her mat behaviors so I can train her to go to a mat and park there until called.  This will be part of our focus for this week as we continue to build on her Retrieve items.

Both Distance and Jump have not been worked much and I must start now that I have a good pole and a good "jump" to work with.  I will start Distance today and have the other dogs work on parking on their mats while I do so.

Emma has learned to be around stuffed toys and not eat them now that the puppy has them to play with and I have made them a "no go" toy in my home.  This is only under supervision.

What a fantastic end of day!  I decided to work Emma on Level 3 Step 1 Down tonight and she flew through.  We were playing in the yard when I placed her in a down by the Maple tree in my side yard and step out of her sight to the front of my home.  She just settled in and relaxed in the down, even with the other dogs running through the yard, and waited patiently for my return.  We got up to 12 seconds tonight.  This is not a pass because I didn't test it cold, but she leapt to 10 seconds in two rounds and even handled my wandering in and out of her line of site with mere curiosity as I worked her.  Fantastic!

In the house I decided to try a new food can with her.  This time I selected a Tuna can and she quickly went from nose targets to foot targets to nudging it along the floor to me to finally putting her mouth on it.  From there she went to picking it up by the tiny edge (she has remarkable control of her teeth) and picked it up and handed it to me.  This took less than 10 seconds!  From there she did a full mouth grab and hand two more times and with utter joy.

The best part was her enthusiasm and determination.  I decided to play, "What else can you pick up?" and tossed my keys, a grooming comb, an envelope, a fork, a spoon and a tube of cardboard on the floor and she jumped with utter enthusiasm and joy to pick up and hand each and every single one to me!  No hesitation.  No fear of things falling and bouncing off the floor as I selected each new object and tossed it down and nothing but happy happy body language!

It was then I decided to try a credit card again.  I saw stamina in her and wanted to ride the ride with her.  SHE DID IT!  With enthusiasm, determination and persistence she picked up and handed the credit card to me twice!  I then got a quarter and she GOT IT ON THE FIRST TRY!  Emma picked up a coin and a credit card tonight!  WOW!

I do believe she'll be able to problem solve and pick up anything she is capable of within another month!  What a huge change in her personality and desire to please.  Trust me, in the last eight days (Malcolm's arrival in the home) Emma has truly engaged and joined the game with 100% of herself.  She do desperately wants to please me as much as I appear to be pleased by Malcolm that she's trying six times harder.  I love what Malcolm's arrival has done for Emma's desire and confidence.  She's not over thinking, she's diving in and succeeding.  How exciting!

We ended the day with a cuddle and grooming session, while wrestling away the grooming tools Malcolm was stealing, and she was able to stay for the grooming even with about 16 pounds of German Shepherd puppy climbing on her.  I kept redirecting him from climbing on her or chewing on her ears and sending him off with a toy or treats, but she truly was patient with little snot during our grooming.  She still doesn't like her face groomed or her tail, but with each grooming and treat following, she's getting better and better.  She no longer throws her head when I groom her face and lets me pull her tail out and brush it and just lays quiet.

I know she's passed Handling, but I want her to enjoy grooming as much as she enjoys the rest of her life and will start increasing the number of rewards she gets when working on her grooming to make it more pleasant for her.

What a big day for Emma!

Wednesday


She's grown so much!
How far our little girl has come.  She continually amazes me.  I am once again at the beginning of the adventure with Malcolm and when I look to see what I need to test and what I need to train I find Emma is so much further along than I ever thought.

Emma is doing a wonderful job of just sleeping with me at night and not getting in trouble.  I am not ready to add to her freedom just yet, but I am pleased with how she does with each new level of freedom she's gained.  She is calming the more she gains the freedom and as a result I am seeing a dog who is maturing in a darling adult.

I am also seeing a teen who desires and even needs regular reassurance she is still loved.  When Malcolm first arrived she spent the entire first day just standing before me with her head just below her shoulders and staring at my life I had shot her pet.  She did the same on the second day.  I kept telling her and showing her that she was still loved and a part of the family.  She has moved past that, but at times just needs me to focus on and give her attention after the amount of time I must give to Malcolm to raise him to be the same polite and lovely dog she's become.

But with Malcolm's arrival has been a greater desire to please and thus a greater desire to join me in any game I ask of her.  Her confidence has soared and her attentiveness has also.  She's rushed in several times when I dropped something and picked it up to just see the smile and happiness on my face.  Emma is facing the "your not the baby anymore" syndrome and it's been maturing her.

Today we worked with a visiting friend on the Come Game.  We need to play it with more people she doesn't know so if she does get out of the house by accident she can be caught without issue and returned home.  She loved the dickens out of Brady and Shari after a bit.  At one point we looked over and she was in Brady's lap with her head tipped up and was gazing lovenly at him.  It was too funny.

She got a lot of play time today with Malcolm, since it was Malcolm's play day.  She is getting better at taking breaks during play and she's correcting his over the top play appropriately.  She is still getting a bit to wound up from time to time and I need to apply a time out to calm both of them down, but she is doing a lot of give and take and it's developing into healthy and appropriate play.

In the afternoon I tested her on Down/Stay.  She flew through!  I had her lay down in the hall and did each step.  She was rock solid and so relaxed I was totally floored by her.  What a wonderful surprise!  We'll continue to test - but she's looking really solid on her most important basic skills.  I am very pleased with this.

Not only has she passed Level 3 Down, but she flew through it.  All the foundation work of Sit/Stay and Down/Stay in Level 2 made this level a breeze for her.  That and I have been asking for and getting all kinds of Down/Stays with her around the house and yard when I really need it for something I am doing.

Part of the Come Afters was to have her do a Down/Stay at the front door with it open and my step out of her line of sight 3 times.  Not only did she do a Down/Stay this way, but the whole damn household did!  See, door manners matter.

I have also been implementing releasing each dog by name instead of as a group.  When I am leaving with a particular dog I want that dog to move out the door, but not the herd.  Emma still jerks a bit when I release Max (I have not mixed up the order of release yet, that should trip them up) but she is catching herself and showing remarkable impulse control.  Very nice.

It's nice to see Emma tall and confident.  After months of her slinking and hiding and giving fear signs at any little thing - it's so nice to see her up and bright and eager.  It's a wonderful change from the pre-teen who was so moody.  I have high hopes for the final stages of Emma's training.  She's turning into an amazing dog.

Today when Shari and Brady came over she didn't jump on them and remaind calm in her greeting.  I was very pleased since I had not leashed her when they came in the house.  I did go out to greet them and give them instructions on how to keep Emma's feet down and to reward her for four on the floor.  They never had to deal with the jumping, but did reward her for good behavior on my instruction.

I would suggest the family do the same.  Have treats ready and her leashed when company comes over.  Stand on the leash so it is long enough for her feet to JUST leave the ground, but not long enough to jump onto the company.  When she stops her jumping and sits, have the company reward her with a treat and attention.  If she jumps have them remove the attention and wait for calm.  It took time here, but consistently rewarding only calm with anyone who came into the house has started to keep her feet on the floor 90% of the time.

We practice this nightly when Ronda picks up Jack.  This past two weeks I've leashed her and stood on the leash to further explain it's the jumping we want to stop and the being calm when greeting that gets the attention.  It sunk in and today I let Ronda in with Emma off leash.  I insist the dogs are all in a sit (except Dieter, since his last back injury sitting has become uncomfortable for him) and for them to wait for permission to say hi.  Once given Emma is to walk to the person and keep her feet on the floor.  By enforcing this consistently we have managed to get where I was going - except with her family.

The difference is, when my company comes in they don't make eye contact with her, they wait for her to be calm and they don't talk to her.  I am going to have to insist the family give me time to calm Emma and let her recover her mind when they pick her up and to give her the chance to calm and get her mind when they drop her off.  If we can happy, wiggly, not lunging, bouncy greetings with beloved family we'll have a consistent greeting behavior.  As it is, she still tends to wind up and jump if too much excitement is brought into the greeting.  This excitement can bleed into public work and I want to help her contain herself so it won't.

She is getting better and now rarely jumps on me and most of the time has all four feet on the floor.  Like I said, she's becoming a wonderful adult dog!

Thursday


I no longer see this, but instead a confident and bold dog who
loves helping and knows her job.
By this time in the week I am exhausted and my training goes from formal to practical (meaning, instead of sitting and working a lesson plan I work what she knows in a daily living routine).  Thought out the day I ask her to pick up some thing I have dropped or call her to me to help in what ways she knows already.  I also spend this end part of the week just cuddling and loving on her and letting her process what she's learned.  It is about the time of the week I introduced a new concept for her to mull for the weekend for the next week's lessons.

Malcolm was not feeling well and had the scoots a bit.  I had given him a fish oil capsule the night before and it worked to clear out his behind nicely.  We spent almost the entire day in the yard, which was perfect because we are working steadily on yard manners.

Emma, like most dogs, has decided that she must defend her yard.  I don't mind this too much, but it can be over the top when dealing with four or five dogs.  She has learned to watch the neighbor children and even the next door neighbors through the fence without barking (she sticks her nose through the wire and watches intently) and she even stands at the gate watching people pass now in silence a majority of the time - it's dogs loose in the neighborhood and cats loose in the neighborhood that send her into fits of barking.

Since, as my blog has stated all along, I am dealing with a loose dog issue (not just the ones directly next door, but there is another that lives down the street too) and I cannot control the neighbors dog or insist they keep their dog on only one side of their home, I have decided to train all of my dogs to ignore dogs outside of the fence.

I started an intensive training plan for them in regards to this.  It's called the Three Bark Rule or in my case the Thank You training I do for barking issues.  Since I had out of control dogs when the loose dog came into sight, I knew I had to find a way to tell them what I wanted.  Thursday was intensive Thank You training day.

Each time they spotted the dog and were within sight of me I would call out "Thank You" and then call them to me.  Since each of them has a very strong recall and I had reworked recall with distractions all week, they were able to break away and come racing up to me.  I have my pockets and bra stuffed with treats and as they each approached I gave a treat for coming to me.  The "Thank You" no longer needs to be followed by a specific recall unless the individual dog is over threshold, at which point I need to go to the dog and redirect them to me.  Emma had a bad day on Wednesday, but Thursday the consistent recall and my going to her when she couldn't and rewarding her for attention on me and not the dogs helped.  She was recalling clear from the backyard and out of sight, even if she was in the midst of fence fighting with the neighbor dog.

By end of day I had found where our threshold is for the group - approximately 20 feet from the fence.  This is about halfway into the neighbors front yard - a huge improvement from half a block away.  I suspect each dog individually has a different threshold level, but the dog with the lowest threshold (meaning, greatest distance from the fence) is the dog who sets off everyone else.  I believe that dog is Max.

Emma at one point was okay with the neighbor dog (the little one) coming up to within 2 feet of the fence and only reacted when he did.  Max is still about halfway into the neighbors yard before he's unable to handle the dog getting any closer.  Cats still need to be in Russia for him to be calm - though he can ignore my cat, stray cats in the neighborhood when he's not working are a continual issue.

At one point Emma came racing up to me to share a prize she'd found.  Remember I had removed dead vines from my gardens and placed them in the mulch pile behind my garage.  Emma found a squash baby on one of the vines and brought it from the mulch pile to me and let me see it.  I gratefully examined it and returned it to her, at which point she promptly went off and ate it.  It won't hurt her and I have off and on thrown veggies from my gardens to her and the other dogs all summer.

I had also dropped a couple of straws from my Latte (I spoiled myself with one Wednesday on my way home from an errand) and she found them.  I was talking with Ronda when she spotted Emma chewing on the straw.  I called out, "What'chya got?  Can you bring it here?" and she did!  She ran a good 40 feet to hand me the straw!  I thanked her for it and traded her for a treat.  She was very pleased.

I have gone to extremes to show her I don't want her jumping on company and worked on that everyday.  I had been leashing her when Ronda came to the door to pick up Jack and by Wednesday no longer needed to leash her.  She's not jumping on Ronda and her over excitement reaction to company is turning into a more appropriate greeting.  She is heavily rewarded with affection for calm greeting behaviors and given treats off and on for extremely good self control - such as starting to jump and choosing not too.

Since my day job as a web developer has ended and my final paycheck from that job was banked earlier in the week, I need to find ways to replace the income I have lost.  I am therefore taking on any side jobs offered when I can.  A family friend has a Currier business and asked me if I could do a run for him - the pay for the run is badly needed and I agreed.  This meant my end of day changed from the norm.

Walter came over to meet his little brother.  Emma and the dogs were out and I was very pleased to see that even though she was jumping some, it was not on him, but beside him.  She did a lot of sit and vibrate and got loads of treats for self checks on jumping.  Walter was impressed.  Ronda arrived at 5 to pick up Jack and again Emma did a fantastic job of keeping her feet to herself.  She's starting to self regulate and just needs more practice to make this a life long change.

I packed up supplies for Malcolm and Max for the trip to Lewiston, Idaho and set the house up for success for Emma.  I fed the dogs, gave them one last potty out and left the house at about 5:40 PM.  I did not return home again until 1:30 AM and found Emma both calm and happy and my home fully intact.  Emma has officially become a dog who can stay alone for extended periods without separation anxiety and can be trusted loose in my home.  She now needs to be taught the same at her home.

Our nights sleeping loose in my bedroom continue to be without incident and I am seeing a calmer and happier dog for the freedom she's earned.  I am very proud of this little dog!

Friday

At 14 weeks Emma didn't know anything - not even how
to answer to her name.  What amazing changes have happened
for her!
Since I arrived at 1:30 AM from work the night before and couldn't get to sleep until 3:30 AM, waking at 7 AM was painfully hard.  Malcolm woke me by fussing in his crate.  I staggered out of bed and let the house out to potty.  I had taken care of the garbage cans when I came home the night before and therefore didn't have to do the mad dash to get recycling and garbage out for garbage day.  I also didn't bother with leashing up Malcolm.  It was cold and I knew he wouldn't take long outside when he's just woken from his warm crate.

Jack arrived just prior to 8 AM and the dogs were fed by 8:10 AM with me still staggering and so rummy from lack of sleep I couldn't hardly move.  I let them play until 8:50 AM and as Malcolm started to settle in for his morning nap took him to his night crate and crated him up.  I set the alarm for 11:00 AM and turned on The Closer on the DVD player and stretched out with Dieter, Jack, Emma and Max on the bed with me.  What I forgot to do was gate the bedroom - I was that tired.

Emma was free to explore as I drifted off to sleep.  I had left one of the cat's toys down - a foam rubber soccer ball - and when I woke I found bits and pieces of it everywhere and Emma laying next to me looking all innocent - except for a bit of the foam rubber in her beard.  It looks like I will need to spice one of them with hot sauce and leave it for her to find and just make them unappealing as a rip and shred toy.

But, as I quietly picked up bits of foam rubber around the house and found the remains of the ball in the big crate, I realized this is the first time in almost a month I've had to clean up some shredded item in my house.  Her rip and shred days seem to be passing, but this toy was just too much temptation when I was sleeping.

I woke just prior to her owner calling and arranging to pick her up early.  She normally has her "think on this" lesson on Friday's so she has the weekend to mull and fuss over what I am asking of her, but I couldn't think straight today and so just worked on yard manners again.  She isn't ripping, shredding or eating everything in sight in the yard either.  She's no longer raiding the recycle bin or digging up the flower beds or barking at every sight in the neighborhood.  It's really starting to become a no muss no fuss job of having her just play in the yard.  When the loose dog appeared she barked three times and turned to me as if asking "now I come to you?"  I told her good girl and she raced to me for her reward.

She spun on a dime when she went to race to bark at something else and I said her name too.  It's amazing how spot on her recall is becoming.  She loves running to me and getting her rewards - in another week I can start randomizing from giving a treat for breaking away from some distraction.

How far this dog has come.  She's calmer and happier than I have ever seen her.  She loves training now and enjoys her cuddles and even if something startles her she recovers quickly.  She runs to me when something drops now because she might need to pick it up and she's starting to do a default retrieve (a goal of mine for her - which means she'll never have a default leave it) and she's moving away from unruly pre-teen/teenager into young adult dog nicely.

Her pre-teen/teenage months were hard for her.  She went through so many changes emotionally and mentally during that time.  There was a point, when she was 10 and 11 months old I feared she'd career change and now I see a dog whose ready to start the harder public access lessons I need to do and has really come into her confidence.  Wow!  Nice job, Ms. Emma!


Level 1
Zen Target Come Sit Down
Step Completed Completed Completed Completed Completed

Level 2
Zen Come Sit Down Target
Step Completed Completed Completed Completed Completed
Focus Lazy Leash Go To Mat Crate Distance
Step 3 Completed 2 Completed 2
Jump Relax Handling Tricks Communication
Step 1 4 Completed Completed Completed

Level 3
Zen Come Sit Down Target
Step 3 Completed 2 1 1
Focus Lazy Leash Go To Mat Crate Distance
Step 0 Completed 0 4 0
Jump Relax Handling Retrieve Communication
Step Completed 2 Completed Completed 1

Level 4
Zen Come Retrieve Target Relax
Step Completed 1 Completed 0 1
Focus Lazy Leash Go To Mat Crate Distance
Step 1 Completed 0 5 0
Handling Communication


Step Completed 0


Friday, October 11, 2013

13 Months: Training - Days 190 - 194

Malcolm has joined the family.  He is a 7 3/4 week old German
Shepherd puppy destined to be my next service dog.
A new puppy arrived this week.  His name is Malcolm and he's my new service dog in training.  Malcolm is an 8 week old German Shepherd puppy and the whole household is in an uproar with this little pipsqueak.  Emma is clearly uncertain how to handle a puppy that  young and has been shifting from curious to aloof to "get away from me kid" to playful with him.  She's decided he's not dangerous, but she's not sure if she wants to play with him, especially when he tugs on her tail hairs.

She's only been snarky with him once, and that was when she had a bone in my recliner and he was trying to play with her.  He was play bowing at her and jumping up into her face as she chewed on her bone and she lip curled at him.  He got the message and left, so I wasn't too worried about the interaction.

The biggest change I have seen in her is for a day after he arrived she spent most of it looking at my life I had shot her best friend.  She was very clingy and needed a lot of reassurance I wouldn't be shoving her out in the cold just to care for the baby.  He hadn't set his sleeping schedule yet, so our first day was out of whack and she needed a lot of extra loves.  By bedtime, when I gave her a new level of freedom, she decided maybe he wasn't so bad and was fine the next day.

Monday

Malcolm came into our lives at 11:30 AM.  I had called his parents owner, whom I had bought him from 2 weeks ago, and said I would like to pick him up either that day or the next.  We decided on that morning.  I promptly crated Jack, setup Emma and Max for success in the house and left to get the puppy.

I was gone for 2 hours.  I ran out and picked up Malcolm, took him to Diamonds in the Ruff to fit a collar on him and then dropped by the vet to weigh him and introduce him to the vet office while no other dogs were in the lobby.  He was stressed and shell shocked by the time I walked through the door with him at 1:30 PM.

Jack, Emma and Dieter were all into sniffing him and checking him out.  Emma did a lot of nose jabs and nips on him at first and then ran off to play.  Dieter was all butt bumps and side glances and attempts to mount him.  I protected Malcolm through the process and took everyone outside for a good run.  We spent the remainder of the day going in and out so he could potty and letting the household settle into having a new sibling.

That night as I hit a wall of exhaustion I called it a night right before 8 PM.  I took everyone out for one last time for the night (or so they thought) and then herded the crew into my bedroom.  I gated the bedroom, crated Malcolm in the crate by my bed and as Emma, who was laying on my bed watching me, started to get up to go to her crate I told her that she was fine and would be sleeping with me.

She settled on my bed as I finished getting ready for bed and waited for the expected call to go to her crate.  I know she was confused when I crawled into bed and flipped on the DVD player for Malcolm and went to sleep.  I felt her fuss and flip about for a moment beside me, slide so she was on my arm and then sit up and watch me for a moment.  She then settled in for the night and went to sleep.

At 1:30 AM we all headed out again as Malcolm woke and told us he needed to pee.  The whole household went out and peed and then went back to bed.  Emma gladly settled by me this time and went right to sleep.  It is the extension of teaching her how to be okay in the home without direct supervision and her world is again expanding.  For the next month she's sleeping in the bedroom while the door is gated.  Next month I will remove the gate and give her a chance at being a good girl for the night while I sleep.

Tuesday

Malcolm had a vet appointment in the afternoon for his first shots and deworming.  I worked with Emma and Jack on targeting a piece of tape on the floor.  For the first time as I trained first Max, then Jack and then Malcolm, Emma emerged from behind my recliner and asked to be trained.  This is huge for her.  She normally waits to be called and gives me appeasement signals until she knows what I am training.  I was very very pleased to see her ask to join in the games I was playing with the rest of the family.

She was confused about what I wanted with the foot targeting at first, but soon figured it out and once again was offering her foot over the target and looking at me.  She was actually shocked when I stopped the lesson the first two times.

It was during Malcolm's second lesson of the day that she sat right beside him and showed me she KNEW that lesson and wanted to play.  This too is a huge difference in her.  She's engaging me and no longer waiting for me to engage her.  I love it.

Another part of her growth is she has finally decided my keys are not lava and she can pick them up.  I set them down for Malcolm to pick up, which he promptly did, and she watched in utter surprise when I got excited for him doing so.  I had planned on training her on them again (it makes my life easier if she can pick up what I need also - when working her public access if I drop something she can still help me when Max is not present) and had been thinking of what to do to break concept into smaller bites for her.

I have my keys separated onto two rings.  One ring has my house key, Ronda's house key and Diamonds in the Ruff's door key on it with a mini-kong key fob.  The other ring has my van key, gas key and the electronic fob and a cloth fob on it.  Connecting them is a laser pointer with clip that can be easily opened and removed to separate all the key rings.  I did just that.

I had her pick up my car keys, which she did after a bit of rework on taking them closer and closer to the ground and handing them up to me.  I then worked my house keys the same way.  I then did the same with the laser pointer.  I then attached the laser pointer to my house keys and she picked them up, via the laser pointer and then attached my car keys to the whole shebang and TADA, she picked up the whole kit-n-caboodle.  What a huge break through!  By the time she picked them up the third time as a whole unit she was overjoyed with herself and bouncy happy.

Wednesday



What a fantastic day.  Malcolm has been a remarkably contrary puppy and at the same time easy enough to manage.  He has to chew on everything and attacks the furniture, my shoes, my pant legs and anything else he can at random and then falls over asleep for up to 45 minutes at a time.  It is during these wonderful nap times I am getting training in on the rest of the crew.

Today Emma worked on Retrieve with my keys and putting items in the basket.  We took the basket outside and I got video of her transferring the lessons in the house to the front yard.  It was great seeing her solve the problem yet again and get more and more confident with the process.

She has started the normal process of taking what she put in the basket out of the basket and handing it back to me.  I will work on that after she is very confident with the process of putting things in the basket.  Soon she'll be putting her handlers clothes in his laundry basket at the end of the day!

We once again worked my keys.  She was again uncertain what to do and I just broke the keys apart again and worked it.  It went extremely fast and she was very pleased with herself for solving the problem again.  I will slowly work her to picking them up once I drop them from a standing position.

Thursday

Levels Training is now a portion of her weekly training.  Learning self control, tasks needed for her handler and how to be a good dog both supervised and unsupervised are important also.  She's developed a bark at the world problem again and I am working on her recalling and ignoring things outside of my fence.  The problem is, the neighbors have a new dog and he's not fenced or tethered and thus a threat for the whole household (according to the dogs at least).  This means I must make the unpleasant call to SCRAPS to have this dealt with.

Yesterday he met Jack and Ronda at my gate and on Monday he met me and Malcolm at the gate.  I have also noted a hole by my fence on my neighbors side where he's tried to dig in to my yard and yesterday I heard another neighbors dog screeching in pain or fear and he came running out of their yard with trash in his mouth.  As sweet as he is, I can't have this type of disruption when I am training dogs to work in public and thus, I am calling to have him dealt with and properly cared for.  Shame, if I didn't own three dogs of my own and had two visiting dogs, I would take him in a heart beat - he is a sweet dog.

With Levels being only a part of Emma's training I focus on one Level's skill a week and build on it to improve Emma's task training.  Emma is learning how to retrieve more objects, but doesn't have a cue yet her handler can use consistently.  I plan on using his eye contact with her as a mode of communication.  At this point, I am working on Focus with Emma.

Emma is settling into focus nicely.  We worked on it in a round robin training session between her, Max, Jack and Malcolm.  What I have noticed since Malcolm's arrival is Emma emploring me to pet her and pay more attention to her.  A baby dog takes alot of time and at one point she was the one getting all of the attention Malcolm is now.  Unless he's crated or sleeping I have to keep half my energy on him and she's noticed the sudden removal of my eye on her all the time.

With training she used to go behind the recliner and wait for me to call her and then emerge with appeasement body language.  Now I am finding her chin resting gently on my arm and then feel a very purposeful push of her snoot against me.  When I look she's wiggling and happy to have me turn away from the infant and back to her.  What this has done is make her desire my spending time training her that much more.  It's a lovely change in attitude and I am happy to see it.

So, when I said, "Emma's turn" and she lit up I knew she was already halfway into the game before I turned my focus on her.  She tried several things to see what I was clicking for and when she realized it was eye contact she settled in and began giving me solid and steady eye contact.  Very nice to see.

We got up to a solid 5 seconds at least 5 times and loads of 1 and 2 second to keep her focused and in the game.  She was upright and happy to play.  Her tail was waving constantly while training and she was settled and happy to be my center of attention.

Emma has decided she desires and even needs my attention and is willing to play my games to get it.  I love it.

Friday

What a fantastic day.  We worked on eye contact again and once again got lots of 5 second eye contact and loads of 1 and 2 second eye contact with her remaining steady and confident.  No appeasement signs anymore - she's all in the game.  She doesn't go behind my recliner when I grab the treats and clicker and she begs me to pick her first.  I love this change in her.

I pulled out my printed version of the Levels and peered through Level 2 to see what more we needed to work on and realized everyone in the house would need solid mat work if I am to round robin 4 dogs during the day when training.  This means they all also need excellent down/stay skills too.

I went out and got my mat that doesn't slide on my wood floors and then placed Jack and Max in a down/stay.  Emma worked while they were rewarded randomly for remaining in a down.  We got in approximately 5 minutes of running from the mat to finding the mat and heading into a new direction for the treat I tossed.  Both Max and Jack ignored the flying treats and waited for the ones I would send between their feet. Excellent.

I then placed Emma in a down/stay and worked Jack.  She watched treats roll within inches of her and didn't move for five minutes of busy activity while Jack worked on finding and being rewarded for going to the mat.  Extremely impressed with how well she's holding her stay!

I then placed Jack and Emma in a down/stay and worked Max.  Both Jack and Emma did a couple of popups, but otherwise held their down/stays.

We did this exercise twice during the day and each time Emma got faster at finding the mat and not orienting on where I was standing.  Very nice work.  I am attaching the cue as she approaches the mat and steps on it at this point - but will remove the cue again when I start sending her to her mat and away from me.

She decided that she really likes playing with Malcolm, but that she needs to be gentle when she does it.  If he gets to mouthy she holds the tip of his nose behind her canines and is even rolling onto her back so he can mug her neck.  I had to remove her collar for the game play because Malcolm kept biting it and getting his teeth stuck.  Emma is starting to put pauses into their games and doesn't need me to calm her as much when playing with him, but if the games go too long she winds up and becomes to excited and needs to be calmed.

She ended the day with over an hour of play in the yard.  She had a great week and should have a lot to think about.  Very nice work Ms. Emma!


Level 1
Zen Target Come Sit Down
Step Completed Completed Completed Completed Completed

Level 2
Zen Come Sit Down Target
Step Completed Completed Completed Completed Completed
Focus Lazy Leash Go To Mat Crate Distance
Step 3 Completed 2 1 2
Jump Relax Handling Tricks Communication
Step 1 3 Completed Completed 1

Level 3
Zen Come Sit Down Target
Step 3 2 0 0 1
Focus Lazy Leash Go To Mat Crate Distance
Step 0 Completed 0 0 0
Jump Relax Handling Retrieve Communication
Step 0 0 0 Completed 0

Level 4
Zen Come Retrieve Target Relax
Step 0 0 Completed 0 0
Focus Lazy Leash Go To Mat Crate Distance
Step 0 Completed 0 0 0
Handling Communication


Step 0 0


Wednesday, October 9, 2013

12 Months: Training - Days 186 - 189

Emma convincing me I want to get up and feed her.
Emma has taken off with her training.  I have been considering what we have, where we are going and what we need to proof and call "finished" to get her ready for graduation in March or September of 2014.  She could graduate as early as March (18 months) or as late as September (24 months) depending on her personal progress.  I don't want to rush her into final service work before she's emotionally ready and has a solid foundation in task training and learning which will allow her to continue to add tasks as needed throughout her working life.

Down is one.  She needs to have her down proofed for when I walk around a cart and when at a check out stand so she knows what to do and not be bouncing all over.  Sit is the same.  She needs to hold her Sit during activities and only get up when cued.  Out of sight Stay, either in a down or a sit needs to be proofed in and out of the home.  Get Help, Retrieve, Bed Making, removing clothes, working doors and lights and putting clothes in a basket or getting clothes and bringing them all need to be finalized.  We have the parts and pieces to most of those, but the biggest part is finalizing her ability to pick up anything we ask and building confidence before we get too fancy with it.

Therefore, I am taking it slow right now as she moves from bratty teen to more mature young adult and building on a foundation of retrieve.  Most of her week went that way.  Build on retrieve and work on calming behaviors.  Emma is very excitable and she needs self calming behaviors - so we are working on those too.

Which leads us to the biggest issue she has right now - self control.  When coming to me or going to her handlers or meeting people Emma is out of control.  I am putting together a concentrated plan to build on and direct that energy so she can and will control herself when greeting people and walking on the leash to something that excites her.

That is and will be a major priority for a while.  She must gain control of herself to work in public - even if she is excited to meet someone she knows.  I am also adopting a new puppy for myself and will be starting his blog shortly.  I don't want him to learn her bounce off the bladder excitement she displays, since he'll be 60 pounds by the time he's 5 to 6 months old and 80 pounds by the time he's grown.

Monday

I have been teaching Emma to put items in a basket.  When I started Emma was a bit fearful of the basket and would circle it and try to push the item she held in her mouth into my hands - even going to the extent of standing on my chest if I was on the floor so she could be "in position" to drop them.  I worked slowly, working the basket as a shaping exercise for her to look at and interact with and then worked on her targeting the basket with her nose for a bit.  I finally went back to her picking up items and held the basket at a 45 degree angle between my knees and encouraged her to put the sock I was using into it.

I saw a lot of paw lifting and appeasing body language, Emma's way of saying she's uncertain of what I want and it makes her worried.  I worked her slowly and carefully for the entire day in 3 to 5 click increments until she finally had the sock over the basket.  Once there it was a short few clicks and she put the sock in the basket.  Once that happened she understood!  It is hard to work with her when she's so uncertain and willing to run away instead of work through, but as she gets older she is more willing to work through and solve the puzzle.

Once we had that we worked the sock and wash cloth into the basket several more times.  By the end of the day she was purposely putting the sock very gently on the bottom of the basket and I had the basket on the floor.  Nice.

Tuesday

I have been since Emma arrived working her up to being left loose and alone in the house.  I waited until she was 12 months old before starting the bigger part of the picture for her.  When she arrived she was crated when I showered or couldn't directly watch her.  Between 4 and 6 months of age I started to let her remain loose in the bedroom, but gated her in so she couldn't explore the house while I took a morning shower.  By 9 months of age she was loose in the house during my showers, but I had picked up and put up anything I didn't want her to chew.  By 11 months of age I was picking up less items and giving her those few minutes I am in the shower.  I was also leaving her loose in the house when I went to the mailbox, to talk to someone outside or to walk around the house.

At 11 1/2 months of age she was up to 20 minutes in the house while I was in the yard and directly outside of the house.  She was not finding trouble and showing signs she was able to handle being left when I was away from home.  At 12 months of age I gated the bedroom, closed the front office, front bathroom and tied off the garbage cabinet.  I picked up everything I didn't want her to chew and left her unattended in the home for 45 minutes.  She was fabulous.

This week she managed 2 hours alone at one point, an 1 1/2 alone at another and an accidental 4 hour period without destruction of my home.  Emma is well on her way to being able to spend extended times alone in my home without issue.  She needs to have the same slow build up at her other home and the same preparation for success so she can learn to do it at any location.

We continued to work on calming behaviors by winding her up and then disengaging from her so she had to calm herself to get my attention again.  She loves that game.  We also worked on more items for her to pick up and began working on removing socks from my hands.

With the socks from my hands I was placing them on my hands very loosely and having her touch, then take and finally pull on them.  She tended to take the sock and then press it back into my hand, which I found to be very cute.  She very much has a "give it to the human" mind set.

Emma is starting to learn to help her handler undress.

Wednesday

I was getting ready Wednesday morning and knocked the DVD remote off of my night stand.  I made a mental note to ask Emma to retrieve it and finished getting ready for the morning.  When I was done I sat on the edge of my bed and called her to me.  I pointed to the remote and Emma pounced on it, picked it up perfectly and handed it to me.  What a fantastic thing to see!  I hadn't trained on remotes before this and was unaware she'd been picking them up at her home for a while now.  Her family later told me she picks up lots of things for them and they never think much of it since they don't realize she's never done it before.  The advantage of her having two homes is she gets loads more practice on her skills that way!

We worked on foot targeting in the evening.  I want her to become aware of the target I want her to stand on to begin her pivot training in earnest.  I have tried several ways to train her a pivot with me when I am turning in a chair, but she's confused and I am not breaking it down enough for her, so I decided to break it down even further and teach her to stand on a target and keep her front feet on it when she pivots with me.

She was so focused on retrieve that she kept trying to hand me the lid I was using.  I would put it down and she would scoop it up and hand it to me.  I finally put it down upside down and watched in amazement as she persisted on trying to retrieve it!  What a wonderful thing to see.  She is so comfortable with retrieve now she is willing to work and solve more difficult retrieves.  This means I can begin teaching her to pick up tiny or thin items like coins and credit cards!  What a break through for Emma.

She did manage to get to foot targeting and did a fantastic job.  She tested me by holding her foot just over the target and would look to me for confirmation that she was right.  It was wonderful to see her so involved in the training and so ready to learn.  She's gaining confidence day by day and I love it.

Friday

Emma left for the groomers on Friday, so we had no training.

Emma is doing so fantastic.  She is learning in leaps and bounds and she's joining me more and more in the learning process.  She's gained enough confidence to persist, even when she's worried she may be wrong, and she's over the top excited when she gets something right.  The long months of shy and nervous behavior has been nurtured and worked through with careful, positive training and she's becoming a confident dog.  She's always been a  happy one, but seeing the confidence grow in her is amazing and I am loving it.


Level 1
Zen Target Come Sit Down
Step Completed Completed Completed Completed Completed

Level 2
Zen Come Sit Down Target
Step Completed Completed Completed Completed Completed
Focus Lazy Leash Go To Mat Crate Distance
Step 3 Completed 2 1 2
Jump Relax Handling Tricks Communication
Step 1 3 Completed Completed 1

Level 3
Zen Come Sit Down Target
Step 3 2 0 0 1
Focus Lazy Leash Go To Mat Crate Distance
Step 0 Completed 0 0 0
Jump Relax Handling Retrieve Communication
Step 0 0 0 Completed 0

Level 4
Zen Come Retrieve Target Relax
Step 0 0 Completed 0 0
Focus Lazy Leash Go To Mat Crate Distance
Step 0 Completed 0 0 0
Handling Communication


Step 0 0